Jakob-Fugger-Zentrum
Africa's struggle for its art - Bénédicte Savoy in Augsburg
Bénédicte Savoy in Augsburg
The international visiting Professorship at the Jakob-Fugger-Zentrum offers students and teachers of the University of Augsburg as well as interested people from the city the opportunity to experience internationally renowned personalities from politics, business, science and art in Augsburg. With lectures, seminars and debates on key issues of our time, the international visiting Professorship promotes dialogue between lecturers, the University of Augsburg and urban society. The International Guest Lectureship is a joint initiative of the Faculties of Humanities, Cultural and Social Sciences and the Jakob-Fugger-Zentrum at the University of Augsburg.
Bénédicte Savoy, one of the most politically influential art historians, has joined the International Guest Lectureship in the summer semester 2024. She has advised French President Emmanuel Macron and conducted extensive research into colonial history. Her lectures in Augsburg are dedicated to the topic “Africa's struggle for its art”.
Since the 1960s, African intellectuals, politicians and museum personnel have been trying to bring back to Africa the art that was taken en masse to European museums during the colonial era. In the spirit of post-colonial and post-racist solidarity, they were initially supported throughout Europe by politicians, journalists, academics and museum professionals. In the end, however, the battle was not only in vain, it was also successfully made forgotten. On the basis of countless unknown sources from Europe and Africa, Bénédicte Savoy tells the ghostly story of a missed opportunity, a defeat that today strikes back at us with all the greater force. The topic has been discussed again in Europe since 2017. But where do we stand today?
Africa's struggle for its art - events
May 14, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Opening lecture: Africa's struggle for its art
University of Augsburg, H (Law) 1009
May 14, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Seminar for master's and doctoral students
University of Augsburg, D 4056
June 6, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Panel discussion “Africa's struggle for its art”
with Drossilia Dikegue Igouwe, University of Augsburg,
Dr. Heidrun Lange-Krach, Städel Cooperation Professorship Goethe University Frankfurt,
PD Dr. Richard Hölzl, Provenance Research Museum Fünf Kontinente Munich,
Dr. Karl Borromäus Murr, Director of the Staatliches Textil- und Industriemuseum Augsburg (tim).
Moderated by: Nicki K. Weber (University of Augsburg)
University of Augsburg, H (Law) 1009
June 7, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Workshop for all interested on the topic: “Atlas of Absence. Cameroon's cultural heritage in Germany and Augsburg”
about the Lecturer
Bénédicte Savoy
is head of the Department of Modern Art History at the Technical University of Berlin. From 2016 - 2021, she held a professorship at the Collège de France in Paris for the cultural history of artistic heritage in Europe from the 18th to the 20th century. Her research interests include museum history, Franco-German cultural transfer, Nazi art theft and post-colonial provenance research. Together with the Senegalese academic Felwine Sarr, she compiled the report “On the restitution of African cultural property” in 2018 on behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron. She has received numerous awards for her research and academic teaching, including the 2016 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation and, most recently, the Berlin Science Prize from the Governing Mayor of Berlin. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the French Legion of Honor and various scientific advisory boards and committees. Her most recent book, translated into several languages, is “Afrikas Kampf um seine Kunst. Geschichte einer postkolonialen Niederlage” as well as the joint publication ”Atlas der Abwesenheit. Cameroon's cultural heritage in Germany”.